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Mike Rutkoski’s beginnings will sound familiar to many Wyoming Valley residents.
He was raised in Plains Township and attended Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre.
“I had a great childhood growing up there,” Rutkoski said.
Then he left at 18 and joined the U.S. Air Force. What happened next kind of breaks the mold, though.
After the Air Force, Rutkoski moved to New York City and got into show business, following his older brother, Bill, who had moved to the Big Apple a few years before, in 1977.
“New York is fun,” said Rutkoski, a veteran actor who will be seen on the big screen in Northeastern Pennsylvania later this month when “Baby Frankenstein” has its local debut at R/C Wilkes-Barre Movies 14.
Both Mike and Bill Rutkoski appear in the film. But its existence owes much to a collaboration between Mike Rutkoski and Jon YonKondy, a West Pittston native and Los Angeles-trained filmmaker who translated Rutkoski’s original work into a screenplay, which YonKondy directed and co-produced.
Our interview with YonKondy can be found here.
“Baby Frankenstein” was born as what Rutkoski called an “off-off-off-Broadway” live production.
“It started as a sketch, and then we put it into play form,” he recalled. “That was a lot of fun, but I always wanted something bigger for it.”
He began shopping for directors. Several individuals expressed an interested, but none was exactly the right fit.
Then Rutkoski discovered YonKondy, who had co-directed a film called “Don Quixote” with actor James Franco while studying at USC in Los Angeles.
“It had gotten some good reviews,” Rutkoski noted. “I saw that this guy had many talents, and he happened to be from my home area.”
Rutkoski had a few talents of his own.
He had started out in New York as a stand-up comedian, and spent some time in Chicago with the prestigious Second City comedy troupe. He also has starred in Hollywood comedies including 2006’s “Last Request,” which included Danny Aiello and Joe Piscopo.
He also wanted to write, which led him to produce plays and sketches, including “Baby Frankenstein.”
Not only was YonKondy the right director, it turned out that home was the right place.
“Part of it was budget. We’re not low-budget, we’re micro-budget,” Rutkoski said. “We knew that here we could possibly get all of our locations for free. That helped.”
Nostalgia didn’t hurt, either.
“I have a lot of fond memories,” Rutkoski said. “I just said, we’re not shooting there in the dead of winter!”